The authors discuss how learning disabled (LD) children's beliefs about themselves may be affected by mainstreaming and how those beliefs may influence their social and achievement related behaviors. Using LD and nonLD elementary and junior high school students, a series of studies examined group differences on a variety of self report and behavioral measures (e.g., attributions, responses to success and failure, social desirability, and conformity). The pattern emerging from these studies suggests that LD children devalue their own performance; respond to academic challenges by disengaging themselves; and respond to interpersonal interactions with what appears to be a deferential, submissive stance. While results are seen to suggest that LD students are prime candidates for attribution retraining, the pitfalls of such training are pointed out. The possible benefits of cooperative goal structures and the modeling process are cited. (Author/SB)